Tag Archives: texting while driving

Post navigation

A man works his phone as he drives through traffic in Dallas, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013.

Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez, a native Texan, urged his home state on Friday to adopt a complete ban on texting while driving, saying that the dangerous activity “ought to have some level of consequence.”

“As somebody who grew up in Texas, I hope someday Texas will in fact pass the laws to restrict texting and while driving,” said Mendez, who grew up in El Paso. “I know it’s controversial, but from a safety standpoint, it’s very, very crucial to our efforts nationwide.”

Mendez called for action as he and other officials gathered in Grand Prairie to celebrate the success of the President George Bush Turnpike’s western extension. The 11.5-mile North Texas Tollway Authority stretch opened in October.

Mendez highlighted the distracted driving issue — a frequent talking point of his boss, outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood — as he made broader push for safety on the nation’s highways.

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have a complete ban on texting while driving. Texas prohibits drivers younger than 18 from using handheld devices and bans all drivers from using cell phones and other devices in school zones.

Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez speaks Friday at a dedication of the President George Bush Turnpike in Grand Prairie.

But a complete texting while driving ban has proved harder to enact. Such a measure passed both the House and Senate two years ago, but the proposed ban was vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry.

State lawmakers — such as Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland — are once again pushing the texting and driving ban. And while Mendez declined to offer a personal appeal to Perry, he said he hoped this year is a success.

“Having those laws in place will help think through, ‘Do I really want to do this?’” Mendez said.

As for the Bush Turnpike western extension, Mendez echoed NTTA chairman Kenneth Barr, Texas Department of Transportation director Phil Wilson and others in praising the project as a model of cooperation between several different agencies.

The $535 million project benefited from a $20 million federal grant and a $418 million federal low interest loan through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. And without that, Mendez said, “we may not be here today.”

“That shows the partnership that’s so important when it comes not just to the execution, but the really funding that is necessary to create these kinds of big projects,” Mendez said.

Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England and others also said the road was an example of how infrastructure improvements can fuel the economy. England detailed how the extension was already spurring major development along the corridor, and it was a point not lost on Mendez.

“When you invest in transportation — and in infrastructure overall — you create a lot of jobs,” Mendez said.

The report, released Tuesday, shows that 240 16- and 17-year-olds died in car accidents in the first six months of 2012. That’s up from 212 such fatalities in the first half of 2011, but less than the early 2000s, when there were routinely more than 400 such deaths in the first half of those years.

And while these teenage driving deaths account for only a small part of all roadway fatalities — more 32,000 people died in vehicle crashes in 2011 — the numbers provide a sobering backdrop for talk of texting while driving bans and other safety measures aimed especially at younger drivers.

“We know from research and experience that teen drivers are not only a danger to themselves, but also a danger to others on the roadways,” Kendell Poole, the association’s chairman, said in a news release. “So these numbers are a cause for concern.”

The report attributes the recent national increase to a couple different things. First, the benefit of state graduated driver licensing laws may be leveling off, since those have been on the books for awhile now. And second, an improving economy has allowed more teens to take up driving.

(Texas had 14 16- to 17-year-old driver fatalities in the first half of 2012, down from 16 such deaths in the first part of 2011. But the figures are too small to draw many conclusions on a state-by-state basis.)

With that in mind, the Governors Highway Safety Association is recommending that states bolster their driving education and training — and that includes looking at distracted driving measures.

Such a measure – which would proponents say would help raise awareness about the issue – passed both the House and Senate last session. But the proposed ban was vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry.

The Governors Highway Safety Association’s report says “distracted driving is a particular problem for teenagers given their inexperience combined with their high dependence on electronic equipment and frequent travel with peer passengers.”

But even though 39 states and the District of Columbia already have complete texting while driving bans, the report’s author, Dr. Allan Williams, echoed some other road safety advocates in seeming a bit nonplussed about the intense focus on the practice.